Students report that infrequent, delayed, and overcrowded H2 and H4 buses are negatively impacting their commutes to and from school. And, while less severe, the M4 bus service is also posing challenges for students.
Every weekday when school lets out, students race to get a spot on the crowded H4 bus headed to Columbia Heights. “I really wish there were more H4 buses, especially during hours where a lot of people are taking it, such as before and after school. I think that it can be really crowded really quickly, I also think there should just be more H4s in general, because it’s really inconvenient,” said Jackson-Reed junior Elena Arbelaez.
The crowding for both buses is most severe at the bus stops near Wawa and Wilson Pool between 3:30 and 4:00 pm. However, buses arriving from Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant in the mornings, between 8:00 and 9:00 am, are also often overcrowded and off-schedule.
Arbelaez reports that the overcrowding of buses and their unpredictable arrivals often make her late to school. “I would have missed part of a major discussion I was having in AP Lang,” she said.
She also commented that wait times are long and she has a lack of good commuting alternatives. “I think I spend a lot of time waiting for buses,” she said, noting that she normally waits for 20 minutes. Elena relies on the H4 bus up to 7 days a week to get her to and from Tenleytown. When asked if she has another way of transportation, she responded, “I can get home through the metro, but it’s just extremely inconvenient for me.”
The M4, another bus that uses the Wawa bus stop, also has issues, but not as severe as the H2 and H4. “M4 is probably like the least crowded bus”, Jackson-Reed junior and M4 bus rider
Francesca Krevat said. However, she noted that similar to the H4 bus, the buses were still infrequent. “I’d say the biggest con is that it doesn’t really come for like 35-40 minute intervals.”
The Metro dispatch schedule shows that M4 buses should arrive in Tenleytown every 10-20 minutes and H4 buses to the Columbia Heights area are dispatched approximately every half hour. Neither of the schedules for these two bus-lines appear to be consistent in real time.
Junior Sophie Posner-Brown contradicts the posted Metro schedule, commenting, “My experience on the M4 is that it is always a really long wait time; it normally comes 3 minutes before school gets out, and then not again for another 30,” she said.
